KALAMAZOO, MI -- The 2012 election campaign is likely to focus on "jobs, jobs, jobs," U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow said today during a visit to Kalamazoo.

"But that's OK. We need to focus on jobs, jobs, jobs," she added. "We're coming out of a very deep hole."

She added that President Barack Obama is likely to do well in the November election in Michigan if the GOP nominee is Mitt Romney.

"I think it will be a tight race" nationally, Stabenow said, "but I think the president will do well in Michigan because he was willing to give manufacturing a chance" in terms of the auto industry bailout, which Obama supported and Romney did not.

Stabenow, who has been in Congress since 1996 and in the Senate since 2000, said that of the three presidents who she's worked with, "Obama is really the first to put a focus on actual manufacturing. ... I think that he understands manufacturing is fundamental to having a middle class."

Stabenow is up for re-election herself this year; the candidates for the Republican nomination include Peter Hoekstra, Clark Durant and Gary Glenn, among others.

Stabenow declined to speculate on her chances in the general election, but said, "I'm confident about what I'm doing and that every day I'm working hard."

Stabenow was in Kalamazoo to address the Kalamazoo Rotary Club. Earlier in the day she was in Grand Rapids to promote to legislation to close a loophole that provides a tax credit for
employers who shutter factories in the United States and send jobs overseas.

The “Bring Jobs Home Act” would instead provide for a credit – and
top it with a 20 percent bonus – when corporations close operations
abroad and bring work back to the U.S., Stabenow said.

"It's critically important to keep jobs here," Stabenow said in an interview with the Kalamazoo Gazette.

She said that while it's "very appropriate" for American corporations to set up manufacturing sites in other countries for items that are sold there, "what we don't want is to provide tax incentives to make products overseas and ship the product back here to sell."

She said the current tax credit is "very hard to defend" and it's just "common sense" to change the rule.

During Stabenow's address at the Rotary luncheon, she talked up the value of Michigan's manufacturing and agriculture sectors, and heaped praise on the Kalamazoo community.

In addition to mentioning The Kalamazoo Promise, Stabenow noted that the last time she met with the Kalamazoo Regional Chamber of Commerce members wanted to talk about early childhood programs.

"I thought, 'Wow, here's a community where business people are talking about investing in children,' " Stabenow said.

"I thought, once again, this is a community that needs to be lifted up and supported."